As I read this missive from an NHS doctor, I just thank the stars that it isn't me or my family in there.

I realise that there are critics of the NHS (often those who can happily afford private medicine or Americans, like they have anything to boast about) but if we were to invest properly for the future instead of sticking another plaster on to try to hide the under-investment surely the NHS can be restored to full fitness ?

Take a look at those mentioned in A+E here. They are mostly elderly - so not likely to be immigrants. The mentally ill, the intoxicated - neither should be there. Then there are the people with a sore throat, a pulled muscle or whatever, again they simply clog up the system. It's ACCIDENT AND EMERGENCY - not feeling a bit off.

"Most of the patients in the corridor today are elderly. Some clearly have dementia, and are confused as to where they are. There’s no dignity, no warmth and a very long wait ahead before the hospital starts seeing and treating them. It turns out that I didn’t manage to shut them out of my mind at all.

As I walk into the changing rooms there is chaos everywhere. A crisis has hit all the staff. The cleaners have needed to help with getting cubicles and bed areas turned around faster and faster, so the staff areas have moved to the bottom of their list. There are literally no clean scrubs or uniforms left for any of us to wear. “Don’t worry, whatever you’ve got on is fine, just start seeing patients.” The bosses are as stretched and as desperate as anyone else.

I am allocated to the “minors” area. This area was designed for ambulatory patients who could be walked into a room, seen and walked back out to the waiting room to wait for results. It is already full of patients on hospital beds, pushed two together in three out of the five consultation rooms. Some are elderly, confused, alone. Some are young, injured or very unwell. One is a mental health patient with severe anxiety. This is not the place to make her feel better. Far from it.

Over the PA system, pre-alerts for ambulances carrying critically unwell patients are announced – the ones whose condition is life-threatening. In 11 minutes, four ambulances carrying patients who need immediate resuscitation arrive. This would saturate the system on a good day. Today they have nowhere else to go.

The inadequate care we are providing is the inevitable reality of the government’s funding decisions

I hear a call for “security urgently” over the PA system. The call is repeated two minutes later. We all know it’s for show. The security team are stretched and scattered all over the hospital, and can rarely answer those calls. This time a staff member had been attacked by an intoxicated patient.

As I walk back down the jammed corridor, increasing numbers of screaming and crying patients line the lanes, creating an emotional and physical obstacle course that every staff member walks down. It’s truly sickening."

I would love to post the Daily Torygraph's Charts that show how the NHS crisis has spiralled out of control.

But, in typical Tory fashion, they are behind a paywall.

However, Theresa May has apologised for delays to thousands of NHS operations and hospital admissions caused by the winter crisis.

It comes after official figures revealed 16,893 patients waited more than 30 minutes on ambulances at accident and emergency departments in England during the week up to New Year's Eve - up 42% from 11,900 in the previous week.

The Prime Minister said she recognised the situation was "difficult", "frustrating" and "disappointing".

It comes as tens of thousands of planned operations have been postponed as the NHS deals with the most urgent cases.

Figures published by NHS England showed the bed occupancy rate in hospitals reached 91.7% during the festive period - 85% is considered safe.

"There were patients lying all over the place on trolleys waiting for beds, but there was nowhere for them to go.

"It was so bad I saw nurses standing crying, and at one point one of the doctors got so fed up he went out to the waiting room and told everyone they weren't going to be seen anytime soon, so unless it was an absolute emergency they should go home, go to see their GP or the out-of-hours GP, or go to a pharmacist.

"I think about 10 or 12 people stood up and walked out."

Patients who had the misfortune to require medical treatment in Antrim's ED over Christmas have, without exception, praised the dedication of the staff working in the unit.

One woman has said she was tended by a nurse who had been working for almost 12 hours, who had no breaks, and had only managed to eat a sandwich at a desk between patients.

According to Janice Smyth of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), her members have told her the majority of patients arriving at EDs across Northern Ireland were genuinely unwell and required medical assistance.

She said the measures taken by the Northern Health and Social Care Trust over the past week have highlighted the fact the health service here is at crisis point - compromising the health and well-being of staff and putting the safety of patients at risk.

"I think the decision to invite St John Ambulance in to help was not a decision they took lightly, but it just demonstrates how desperate they have become," she said.

"And putting a post out on Twitter and Facebook asking already overworked nurses to come in and work on their days off also reveals how bad things are.

"I think the Western Trust did the same thing last year, but at the same time they declared a major incident, so I think it is very interesting the same step has not been taken this year."

Of course, the Northern Trust is not the only health trust that has struggled to cope with demand over the festive period."

Finally, in Scotland, where the SNP would have us believe their health service is in a much better state;

Hospital patients were lined up in corridors as staff struggled to find beds for patients at A&E.

One woman in excruciating pain had to be brought to the hospital by a relative after being told there would be a six-hour wait for an ambulance.

The same woman, who asked not to be identified, waited almost 11 hours at Monklands Hospital in Airdrie to see a doctor – two hours of which were spent doubled up in agony on a corridor chair.

The crisis unfolded as a flu epidemic swept Scotland over the festive period, putting hospitals under severe pressure.

The husband of the woman spoke out last night to demand more resources for Scotland’s casualty wards.

He said: “She went in on Wednesday at 6.30pm and although she was put on a drip and given morphine and tramadol, it was 5.15am before she finally saw a doctor.

“There were people still sitting in corridors when my wife was taken to a ward. I saw two older women on chairs and a younger man who was bleeding from his arm – all in the corridor.

“All of the nurses kept apologising but as far as I could see there were only two doctors in A&E and they were called away four times to deal with patients already in wards who had heart attacks that night.

“I overheard one nurse say, ‘This has made me question why I am in nursing when I can’t even give the minimum quality of care to these patients’.”

I certainly believe that in the OP - have seen it myself on numerous occasions - but wasn't it ever thus?

The NHS has been neglected by every government in the past 30 years or more, it's a monster that needs taming and no-one has been able to do it or had the will to do it.

One thing is for certain 'privatisation' is not the answer. It needs to get back to its original intention, offering health care at the point of need, it isn't and should never be sold to us as a panacea.

It's today's culture which has made things far worse than it should be, sometimes you've just got to tell the woman who comes into A&E that the headache she has is just that, a fucking headache - now piss off and take a couple of paracetamol, so I can deal with someone who really needs my help.

It's how it should be, at one time people would 'police' themselves, not go to hospitals and waste doctors and nurses time, unfortunately Blair's nanny state approach ruined that and created several generations of dumb twats who can't even tie their own shoe laces without supervision and think sneezing twice in succession means they have cancer of the nose.

It needs fixing and soon, otherwise we'll lose the single greatest social achievement in human history because we weren't strong enough to keep it from collapsing.